AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION 1798

An Essay on the Principle of Population

AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION is one of the earliest works on population increase and its effects on society. Malthus noted that the endless increase in population was unsustainable and would be eventually checked by disease, war, or famine (Malthusian Catastrophes). In his view, Malthus believed that progress toward a utopian society would eventually be…

This set provides a definitive scholarly variorum edition of Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population. The edition is based on the second edition of 1803, the work upon which Malthus' repuation as a population theorist and political economist was first built. It shows those parts of the work that incorporated the first edition of 1798, and gives all the variations introduced by Malthus in each of the subsequent editions (1806, 1807, 1817 and 1826). In addition to revealing the nature and extent of Malthus' changes, whether by expansion or excision, the edition reprints the important Appendices added in 1806 and 1817, giving answers to his critics. The work is introduced by the editor and contains a complete bibliography of all the authorities quoted by Malthus, together with extensive explanatory notes. Paricia James has previously edited Robert Malthus' travel diaries (1966) and written an authoritative biography of Malthus, Population Malthus: His Life and Times (1979).

AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION is one of the earliest works on population increase and its effects on society. Malthus noted that the endless increase in population was unsustainable and would be eventually checked by disease, war, or famine (Malthusian Catastrophes). In his view, Malthus believed that progress toward a utopian society would eventually be…

Title: An Essay on the Principle of Population

Fortunately for Malthus, the recently-formed US government had readily available demographic statistics, in the form of census data. Strangely, however, in his first Essay on the Principle of Population, he summarized these statistics with the single phrase, "the population has been found to double itself in twenty-five years," (Essay.. p. 74). While in later works, notably his 1830 Summary View of the Principle of Population, Malthus would make full use of this data, in the first Essay it was all but ignored.

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An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it

AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION is one of the earliest works on population increase and its effects on society. Malthus noted that the endless increase in population was unsustainable and would be eventually checked by disease, war, or famine (Malthusian Catastrophes). In his view, Malthus believed that progress toward a utopian society would eventually be halted by population growth.

An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

This annotated copy of Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population (1826 edition) was owned by Charles Darwin, who was impressed by Malthus’s ideas about how the environment constrains populations.

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“ Thomas Robert Malthus was born to a wealthy family near Surrey, England. His father, the eccentric Daniel Malthus, was friends with both David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Malthus was educated privately at home and, at age 13, began two years of study in residence with Richard Graves, a Protestant minister near Bath. He excelled in history, classics, and fighting. In a letter to Daniel Malthus on the progress of his son, Graves stated that young Thomas "loves fighting for fighting's sake, and delights in bruising. . . ." In 1783, Malthus enrolled in a religious academy for Protestant dissenters; when it failed the same year, he became the private student of a radical Unitarian minister. At age 18, he enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and the classics. He graduated from Cambridge in 1788 and became an ordained minister in the Church of England in 1791. Malthus and his father frequently discussed the issues of the day. When the elder Malthus became fascinated with the utopian philosophy of the popular William Godwin, which preached a vision of peace, prosperity, and equality for all, the younger Malthus expressed his doubts in a manuscript intended only for his father. His father suggested, however, that it be published and so "An Essay on the Principle of Population As It Affects the Future Improvement of Society" appeared in 1798. The book was an instant success. Well written, it argued that population tended to grow at a geometric (exponential) rate, whereas the resources needed to support the population would only grow at an arithmetic (linear) rate. Eventually, society would not have the resources to support its population, and the result would be misery, poverty, and a subsistence standard of living for the masses. "An Essay on the Principle of Population" thrust Malthus into the public eye and dealt such a lethal blow to utopian visions that economics was soon called "the dismal science." In 1805, Malthus became the first person in England to receive the title of political economist when he was appointed professor of history and political economy at the East India College. In 1811, he met David Ricardo, and the two soon became lifelong friends and professional rivals. In 1820, Malthus published "Principles of Political Economy," a sometimes obscure but far-reaching treatment of economics that advocated a form of national income accounting, made advances in the theory of rent, and extended the analysis of supply and demand. Today, Malthus is more remembered for his views on population than for his views on economics. Even so, his other achievements have not gone unnoticed. John Maynard Keynes paid the ultimate tribute when he wrote:"If only Malthus, instead of Ricardo, had been the parent stem from which nineteenth-century economics proceeded, what a much wiser and richer place the world would be today! ”

MALTHUS’ ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION John Avery H.C

Gallery Thomas Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population: v

﻿An Essay on the principle of Population Thomas Malthus, in the early 19th century published an essay on the principle of population as it affects the

Malthus became widely known for his theories about change in population. His An Essay on the Principle of Population observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease, leading to what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. He thought that the dangers of population growth precluded progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". As a cleric, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour.